6.—(1) Subject to this Act, an employee who is the natural or adoptive parent of a child shall be entitled to leave from his or her employment, to be known and referred to in this Act as “parental leave”, for a period of 14 working weeks to enable him or her to take care of the child.

(2) The entitlement to parental leave shall apply only in respect of a child born on or after the 3rd day of June, 1996, or a child in whose case an adoption order has been made on or after that date.

(3) A period of parental leave shall end—

(a) not later than the day on which the child concerned attains the age of 5 years, or

(b) in the case of a child who is the subject of an adoption order and who had attained the age of 3 years, but had not attained the age of 8 years, on or before the date of the making of that order, not later than the expiration of the period of 2 years beginning on that date.

(4) A period of parental leave shall not commence before a time when the employee concerned has completed one year's continuous employment with the employer from whose employment the leave is taken.

(5) Subject to this Act, an employee shall be entitled to parental leave in respect of each child of which he or she is the natural or adoptive parent.

(6) An adoptive parent who is also the natural parent of the child concerned shall, subject to this Act, be entitled to parental leave as a natural parent, but not as an adoptive parent, in respect of the child.

(7) Where both of the parents of a child are entitled to parental leave in respect of the child, neither of the parents shall be entitled to the parental leave of the other parent or may transfer any part of the period of his or her parental leave to the other parent.

(8) Notwithstanding subsection (4), where an employee will not have completed one year's continuous employment with his or her employer on the latest day for commencing a period of parental leave having regard to subsection (3) but has completed 3 months of such employment on the latest day for commencing a period of such leave provided for by this subsection, the person shall, subject to this Act, be entitled to parental leave for a period of one week for each month of continuous employment that he or she has completed with the employer at the time of the commencement of the leave.

(9) In this section “adoptive parent”, in relation to a child, means a person in whose favour an adoption order in respect of the child has been made and is in force.